Conference on EU and international investment law with the Society of European Studies Experts

Friday, 12 April 2019

The Society of European Studies Experts with the European Law and Governance School (ELGS) of the European Public Law Organization co-organized a half-day conference on the subject: ‘EU and international investment law: Recent developments’.

The conference, which addressed national and international legal scholars, took place on April 12, 2019, between 17.30 and 19.30 at the EPLO premises at the Roman Agora (Plaka), Athens.

The purpose of the Conference was to discuss the recent developments of the complex relationship between the EU legal order and international investment law. The CJEU’s Achmea judgment has to be welcomed since it provides important clarifications on this subject-matter. However, many key questions still remain open: Do the CJEU’s conclusions in Achmea exert an impact in the context of a multilateral investment agreement (i.e. the Energy Charter Treaty)? Should the disputes under the extra-EU BITs be distinguished ? What are the legal constraints on the EU Member States in this field?

Press release_After Conference
The speakers discussed the recent case-law on the complex relationship between the EU legal order and international investment law. While it was emphasized that the CJEU’s Achmea judgment clarified once and for all the incompatibility of the intra-EU BITs with EU law, the ruling was criticized from an international law perspective. To what extent the CJEU’s findings in Achmea are to be applied in the context of the Energy Charter Treaty remains an open question as the analysis of some recent investment tribunals’ awards proved. The debate on the relationship between EU and international investment law will continue to attract the attention of legal scholars and practitioners in view of the recent CJEU’s Opinion on the compatibility of CETA’s ISDS mechanism with EU law, which was delivered on 30 April. On Opinion 1/17, the ELGS is organizing a two-day conference that will take place on 12 and 13 June in Paris. Stay tuned!

PROGRAM

Athens| 12 April 2019 | EPLO premises, Plateia Poikilis and Dioskouron – Plaka

EU and international investment law: Recent developments

Working language: English, no translation provided.

Attendance certificates will be delivered upon request

Introduction and chair: Prof. Vassilis Hatzopoulos, Provost of Undergraduate Studies at the ELGS, Professor of EU Law and Policies at Panteion University, Athens and the College of Europe, Bruges.

Prof. Dr. Antonis Metaxas, Assistant Professor of EU Law, University of Athens/TU Berlin
Achmea, supremacy of EU Law and the genius of the preliminary reference procedure

Dr. Luca Pantaleo, Senior Lecturer in International and European Law, The Hague University of Applied Sciences
Post-Achmea developments and beyond: The future of investment arbitration in the EU

Dr. Anastasios Gourgourinis, Lecturer in Public International Law, Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Law of treaties 2.0: Making (normative) sense of Member states’ reactions after Achmea

Dr. Cristina Contartese, Lecturer in EU Law, European Law and Governance School/European Public Law Organization
EU law as applicable law in intra and extra-EU BITs disputes

Debate: Q&A session